Hillsdale County plans to make Lewis Emery Park handicapped-accessible with more than $200,000 in grant funds from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Douglas Ingles, a Hillsdale County commissioner, said former commissioner Bruce Caswell applied for Department of Natural Resources grants as part of a five-year plan for Lewis Emery Park. The grant application required that they update the recreation plan, according to Ingles.
The county is in Phase One of applying for the grants, Ingles said. The grant the county applied for this year would upgrade trails at the park so they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The state would award the county $240,000 for upgrades through the initial grant. The trail and the docks in the park would be ADA-compliant after officials make renovations, according to Ingles.
The grant would completely restore the trail through the waterfall and the path to the docks to make them handicapped-accessible, according to Bob Godfrey, a Hillsdale County road commissioner.
“If we receive the grant all docks would be aluminum and handicapped-accessible,” Godfrey said.
The county hopes to conduct maintenance around the waterfall, according to Ingles, and officials aim to make the park’s trail ADA-compliant.
“There is a trail in particular that is going to be ADA-compliant. They are also going to upgrade the waterfall that has deteriorated over the years,” Ingles said.
Ingles said the county is also applying for a wildlife and fisheries grant, which has an application deadline of Oct. 1.
“What we are hoping for is to dredge two of the six ponds for the health of the fish,” Ingles said.
Ingles said COVID-19 has made Lewis Emery Park a popular place to enjoy nature and these upgrades would only increase the community’s love for it.
“With the handicapped-accessibility it is going to make it available to even more people,” Ingles said.
The grant will require a minimum of a 25% local match, according to Andrea Stay, grant coordinator at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Ingles said the county commissioners have approved the expenditure of the match, should the DNR award the grant to the county.
Application scoring and site visits will take place in the summer of 2022, and awards will be recommended at the Michigan Natural Resource Trust Fund Board meeting on Dec. 14, 2022, Stay said.
If the DNR selects Hillsdale County for funding, according to Stay, construction can start as soon as 2023 or 2024.
“For the 2022 grant cycle we expect to fund approximately $20 million in projects. These grants are competitive and are scored on a multitude of factors,” Stay said.
Grants are scored upon factors such as public support, ease of access, compliance with program procedures, natural resource access, and universal accessibility, according to Stay.
Ingles said these upgrades are crucial.
“These are projects that are needed and through the years some of these very expensive projects get pushed back,” Ingles said.
